View Source: DES - Waikato Linux Users Group

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[Acronym] for __D__ata __E__ncryption __S__tandard

A very widely used and widely studied encryption algorithm. It was designed by a team at [IBM] under guidance from the [NSA] and standardized by the [NIST]. There are a number of variants, including [3DES]. Its designated successor is [AES].

An [NSA] recommendation that [DES] implementations shouldn't use certain parts of the keyspace led to a lot of controversy about whether a backdoor/flaw that allowed [NSA] to break [DES] encrypted messages existed.  A new attack on ciphers found after [DES] being in use for about 30 years was successful against almost all ciphers at the time, including [DES] for that the part of the keyspace.  Many believe that [NSA] knew about this attack (30 years before everyone else!) and "fixed" [DES] to be safe against it.  Take this little story with a grain of salt and use your tin foil hat.

See also:
* [DES Overview | http://www.tropsoft.com/strongenc/des.htm] explains how [DES] works
* [Official standard definition | http://www.itl.nist.gov/fipspubs/fip46-2.htm] at [NIST]
* BruceSchneier's [The Legacy of DES | http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2004/10/the_legacy_of_d.html]

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CategoryCryptography

6 pages link to DES:

Last edited on Sunday, December 5, 2004 1:13:05 pm by AristotlePagaltzis

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